... quick reads on the go

... quick reads on the go

Europe

Once upon a time a woodcutter lived at the edge of a great forest with his wife and their two children. They had a boy called Hansl and a girl called Gretl. The family’s house was very small, it was just a hut really, and they were very poor, often the …

Jupiter was the king of heaven and earth and the big boss of all the gods of Mount Olympus. Every now and then, when they were not busy making up new rules for people to live by, the gods would think up little games to amuse themselves. So it was that …

It was always the custom that whenever the gods had a reason to celebrate they would invite all and sundry to the party. So it was when one day Jupiter decided that he would get married, he invited all the animals to the wedding feast. All the animals …

Once upon a time, in a small village in a land not that far away, there lived a very sweet little girl, with her mother and father. Her grandmother lived about half an hour’s walk away, outside the village, in a clearing in the forest that covered the whole area. The grandmother as especially fond of the little girl, and she had made her a cute little red hat

There once lived an old widow, who had a daughter and a step daughter. Her step daughter was beautiful and hardworking, ever willing to do whatever was asked of her, little and large tasks, and she was always kind to everybody, including her mother and step sister.

Once upon a time in a faraway land there lived a cobbler and his wife. They desperately wanted to have children, but however they tried, it was all in vain. These people lived in a little house next to a mansion, and one of their bedroom windows looked out over the wall of the adjoining property, into an enormous garden, where flowers and vegetables grew side by side in abundance. But nobody ever visited the garden, it was rumoured that the owner of the house, an old woman, was in fact a terrible witch, who possessed terrible dark powers, and as a consequence everybody in the little town avoided contact with her.

There was once a kingdom far to the east where all the citizens were very wealthy. The whole land was covered in fields of wheat, which grew abundantly and apparently effortlessly. The harvests were so rich that everybody had far more wheat than they could eat, which meant that they were able to sell it in the market to merchants from neighbouring kingdoms. This way, some of this kingdom’s citizens were just as wealthy as the king.

There was a time, long before the inhabitants of Britain wrote down their histories for us all to read, that country was inhabited not just by people like you and me, but wizards, ghouls, monsters, dragons, tricksters, and worse, demons. And just as th …

A boy called Peter lived with his parents in a village on the hillside. His parents, like most of the other people in the village, were sheep farmers. Everybody in the village took turns to look after the sheep, and when Peter was 10 years old, he was …

A crow, wandering the streets, came upon a big old jug. She peeped inside and saw there was some water in it, but try as she might she could not get her head down into the jug far enough to reach the water. As the crow knew very well that water is scar …

A guard dog and a cock had been living on a farm for some considerable time, and had become good friends. One day they decided they would like to see the world and they set out together. As night fell, they found a nice tree where they decided to spend …

It was a fine summer’s day and fox was out for a stroll when he spotted a crow sitting on a high branch of a tree. The fox couldn’t help but notice that the crow had in his beak a very large chunk of cheese! The fox being a crafty fox, and the fact tha …

All the hares in the great forest were called together for a meeting. Their elders had decided on the get together so that they could discuss their miserable fate. They just had too many enemies; men, dogs, beasts and birds of prey all hunted the hare …

Two men were travelling together through a distant land. They made rather odd travelling companions, because one of them was incapable of ever telling the truth and could only tell lies, whereas the other could not tell a lie if his life depended on it …

The town of Stavoren was an old seaport in Holland. A long time ago a merchant lived there, who had a fleet of ships that travelled the world buying goods to bring back to Holland for the merchant to sell. The merchant had become extremely rich, and ha …

During the time of the animal kingdom, the animals used to have periodic gatherings where they would discuss important questions and elect their kings. Very often one or two animals would get in front of the crowd and provide some entertainment. Once t …

Athenians have always been great travellers. For a time it was the fashion among them to take a pet with them on their travels, for company and amusement. Lapdogs and monkeys were among the favourites. Once a man was returning to Athens from the East, …

A monkey and a fox were travelling together. The monkey was carrying a rucksack containing some crockery and cutlery, and flints to make a fire, and after some time, he was getting rather weary carrying this weight. “You know,” he said to the fox, “I s …

There was a time, so the story goes, when all the animals lived together in harmony. The lion didn’t chase the oxen, the wolf didn’t hunt the sheep, and owls didn’t swoop on the mice in the field. Once a year they would get together and choose a king, …

Two thieves were prowling around the streets late one night, looking for a house to break into. They were tired and hungry. They weren’t very good at their jobs; they usually made far too much noise, so that they would wake up either the house owner, o …

Once upon a time there lived an old mother goat in a pretty little cottage on the edge of the forest. She had seven little billy goats, and she loved them all dearly. On occasion she would have to leave the cottage to get food for herself and her kids, and today was one of those occasions. She called all her kids together to give them a little lecture on safety. “Listen carefully, my dear children”, she began. “I need to go out to get some food, and I want you all to be very careful because I heard there is a wolf about